The Kisses We Steal
by ekc293
Summary: She just couldn't help herself. Straight up fluff, set somewhere in the future. Caskett.


It seems the only time inspiration strikes is right before I need to go to Spanish class. Go figure.  
><strong>Disclaimer<strong>: I don't own Castle. I couldn't even get my livestream to work properly last night. I watched Head Case via Skype with a friend who I am eternally grateful for. I do own my mistakes though. I tried to read over it but I'm sure I missed one or two things.

Enjoy!

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><p>It was well past dark at the 12th precinct. The only light that emanated from the desolated bullpen shone from the cluttered but organized desk of the one and only Detective Kate Beckett. Kate had spent the better part of the night repeatedly looking over the files and financial records of their latest victim. They had already been on the case for three days and Kate knew that she was running out of time before all their leads ran cold. She had unconsciously made the decision that she was not going to rest until she finally managed to catch her killer.<p>

She put down the files noisily and arched her back against her desk chair, stretching her arms out with a slight groan as she felt her muscles extend to their full capacity. Kate moved back towards her desk and quickly glanced at her watch.

1:42 in the morning. Looking from her watch to the files spread out across every available surface of her desk, she quickly made a decision.

She was going to need some more coffee. A lot more coffee.

Moving her seat back quietly, she slowly stood up, ignoring the protest coming from her tired muscles. She grabbed her empty coffee mug and toward towards the break room. She almost dropped her mug in surprise at what she saw before she had even managed to take a step.

Sitting there at the edge of her desk was the one and only Richard Castle. He was sitting in his usual chair, his left arm draped over the edge of her desk, his right holding a pen against the yellow notepad he kept in the bottom drawer of his desk for when inspiration suddenly struck ("I need this, Kate," he had told her when he asked to keep the paper in her desk, "I never know when Nikki and Rook decide to do something exciting!"). Castle's head was tilted to the side, his face slightly hidden from hers. He looked like he was staring down at the paper, lost in thought.

In all truthfulness, Kate wasn't entirely sure how she had forgotten he was there. He was _always_ there. When 10 o'clock had rolled around and Ryan and Esposito finally called it a night, she had told Castle that he should call it a night, too. He had grabbed all of his things and put on his jacket, but when he looked back at her, she had her nose stuck in another file.

"_What are you doing?" he asked her, confused._

_She looked up, slightly shocked that he wasn't gone yet, "Oh, I'm just going to keep looking for a little while longer. I'll head home in about an hour."_

_They both knew she was lying._

_She smiled at him, "Goodnight, Castle. I'll see you tomorrow morning." She turned back to her file, hoping that something would finally pop out at her._

_Rick looked at her with an expression somewhere between amusement and hurt. Did she really think he was going to give in that easily? Did she really think that he was going to leave her alone here?_

_Kate heard Rick move from the spot by her desk and she let out a sigh of relief. She really wanted him to go home and get some sleep. He needed it._

_Ten minutes later and Beckett nearly jumped as a large cup of coffee came down in it's usually place by her keyboard. Trying her best not to look shocked, she turned her head and looked over to see Castle settling back in his chair, his jacket off and draped over the back of it, with a steaming cup of coffee in his hand._

_He gave her a smile and a small shrug, "I figured we're going to need it tonight."_

Kate allows herself a small smile as the memory fades. She should have known that it wasn't going to be that easy to get rid of him. She tried arguing with him, telling her she was a big girl and he should be home with his family, but he shook his head and told her that he had called Alexis in the break room and told her he would be getting home really late and that there was no way he was going to leave her alone in the precinct, even if she was fully capable of taking care of herself. She had rolled her eyes and went back to work, unaware of his smile as he reached into the bottom drawer of her desk and grabbed his pad of paper.

Shaking her head, Kate moved to stand directly in front of Rick, planning on teasing him for being so insanely quiet. It wasn't until Kate was standing in front of him that she realized why he wasn't talking.

He was sound asleep.

Kate felt a goofy smile threaten to overtake her features as she looked at the sleeping man in sitting in front of her. His hair had fallen and was covering his forehead in an adorable way. His brow was furrowed slightly as if he had been thinking about something very seriously in his dreams. She looked down at his hand in his lap and realized that his pen was dangerously close to slipping out of his grasp, and his notepad was balanced precariously on his leg.

She wanted to wake him up and tell him to go home. She really did. But there was just something about the way he looked that had her incapable of waking him up from his dreams. She decided she would let him sleep a little bit longer before sending him home for the night.

Kate quietly placed her coffee cup on her desk and took another step closer to him. Moving slowly, she gently took the pen out of his hand and slid his notebook out from under his arm. She looked at the paper, curious to see what he had been working on (yes, okay… she snooped) and found herself faced with a list of questions written in his beautiful handwriting.

_If it was the friend, where was the brother during the murder?_

_How would a construction worker suddenly get $200,000 a month?_

_Did he have a life insurance policy? Beckett probably already looked at that._

_What if the brother and friend were working together?_

_How is it possible for someone to be so beautiful?_

Kate immediately stopped reading and put the list down on her desk, blushing. The complete shift in questions had caught her completely off guard. She looked back down at Castle. He had moved slightly since she had taken the objects from his arms, but he was still sleeping.

She found herself wondering how she had managed to get so incredibly lucky to have a man like Richard Castle in her life. He was always there for her and knew exactly what to say in any situation they were in. He was bringing her coffee and making her smile: being her rock when she needed it and keeping her healthy and fed. And Kate had told him that she wasn't ready for a relationship with him seven months ago, and yet he was still here, patiently waiting for his chance.

The thought made her heart beat a little bit faster. Someone thought she was worth the wait. And not just anyone; that "someone" was Richard Castle. The man who had wormed his way into her life through his books, interrupted her job with his antics, and eventually snuck through the cracks in her walls and found a home in her heart.

Before she could even tell what she was doing, she found herself leaning down towards Castle. Resting her hands gently on the armrests of his chair, she tilted her head and ghosted her lips on the corner of his mouth. She pulled away quickly, becoming fully aware of what she just did. Blushing even more, she grabbed her coffee cup from where she had put it down and hurried towards the break room. Closing the door softly behind her, she set her mug down on the counter and leaned against it.

She had just kissed Richard Castle. No outstanding circumstances, no undercover operations, nothing. She had just kissed Richard Castle because she wanted to kiss Richard Castle. She had just kissed Richard Castle at her desk at the precinct at 1:47 in the morning.

She felt her giddiness slip away momentarily as her next thought hit her full force.

_And he wouldn't remember it._

However, the next immediate thought had her biting her lip. She lost the battle she was having with herself as her bottom lip fell from her teeth and a smile formed on her lips. A small laugh burst out from behind her lips.

He was going to be _so_ disappointed.

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><p>So, <strong>Love it? Hate it? <strong>Miss me? **Let me know what you think!**


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